User Experience Comparison of a Social Robot vs. Info Terminal in Citizen Services

This study evaluates user experiences with the social robot Pepper, compared to a traditional info terminal in providing citizen services. The study, carried out with 37 participants at various institutions in Lübeck, Germany, aims to assess the effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction of these two methods in providing information and assistance within a public service setting. The study controls for age, gender, and affinity for technology while measuring customer experience using the Short Version of the User Experience Questionnaire (UEQ-S). The results show that Pepper is attributed higher hedonistic qualities, whereas the terminal is highlighted as pragmatic and is overall preferred in the evaluated context. Further findings show that, while age and gender do have at least some explanatory power in explaining divergent user experiences, the affinity for technology interaction surprisingly did not seem to have an impact.